How do we come up with names for fictional characters?
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Re: How do we come up with names for fictional characters?
In the event that I DO choose a name though, I tend to begin with names that I like aesthetically, and narrow it by choosing a name that I feel most expresses the personality or culture of the character.
I've also heard of writers doing their rough drafts with the names of people in their lives that the characters are based upon, and then changing the names before publication.
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I hate naming things.
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I agree with this. This is exactly what I do. It's so important to the reader to have a clear idea of the characters and be able to keep them separate. I try to avoid having any names with the same initials or even that rhyme. I was a bit disappointed though, when I sent the outline of my proposed first novel to my tutor on a writing course and he disliked my main protagonist's name. She was to have been called Darcy, but I ended up changing it to Helen.tbughi1 wrote:I try to keep my names different. I scroll down the alphabet, picking a name for each new character introduced that doesn't start with the same letter as another name or even sound similar to another name. I don't want my reader to be introduced to Mike and then a couple pages later meet a Matt. There's more to this process obviously, but that's step #1
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Sonetimes I look through a baby name book
I sometimes search google based on their personality
In most cases in my writing the name is the last thing to come.
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How do I choose names? Okay, in my mystery novels (2 published, 3rd in progress) I am writing a realistic series, and so my characters have very realistic names that don't sound contrived, like "Muggsy Malone" -- satire, yes, but I've created a modern, realistic scene, so the names are realistic as well. That being said, my private detective has a slightly distinctive name that's a bit punchy: Mitchell King, so the stories are "A Mitch King Mystery". A decent rhythm but also very common, just a teeny flair for snappiness.
My other characters have common enough names, picked from all sorts of places -- my fevered brain, random name listings, and first/last names jumbled. Here are a few:
Homicide Captain Joe Duggan (Irish in name only, no brogue or stereotype)
Homicide Sergeant David Meierhoff (incidentally an observant Jew and Mitch's best pal)
Julio Cardozo, aka "Julie Cards", mob boss
FBI Agent Ed Scudder
Texas Ranger Arvis Danforth
Detective Lieutenant Juanita Hertza, Hispanic gang task force commander
Dr. Frank Winger, Harris County forensic pathologist (African-American)
Angel and Ricardo Perez, cousins and mob lieutenants (Angel is pronounced "Anhel")
CSI techs Shawnelle Jensen, Tom Phelps, Bart Deely
and so on... and the novels being set in modern day Houston, I mix the mostly Germanic-root Texan names with Hispanic, Asian, and traditional African-American-style given names.
I do however try to avoid stereotypes. Although Joe Duggan of Homicide has an Irish name, I totally stopped there, no brogue or other Irish references. Likewise, I avoided the common TV-crime stereotype of making all coroners, CSI labrats, and medical examiners Asian. And the same for other backgrounds, such as having a big burly black cop or a smarmy thin Anglo rude cop. Three of my regular-appearing characters are also homosexual, one is an electronics whiz (and Mitch's business partner), one is a CSI tech (both males), and one lesbian is a real estate investor. And occasional characters who come across the stage are of mixed age, race, sexual consideration, and other factors. I've tried to cut a slice through a modern city's population and character names are just the top layer.
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